--- title: "Hacker Wearing Pajama Pants Brings Down North Korea’s Entire Internet" description: "An American white hat hacker managed to disrupt the internet connection of North Korea — while wearing pajamas, eating chips, and watching \"Alien.\"" date: "2022-02-02" modified: "2022-02-02" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/hacker-pajamas-north-korea" categories: - "Cybersecurity" - "Future Society" - "Hacking" tags: - "hacking" - "north korea" - "the digest" --- # Hacker Wearing Pajama Pants Brings Down North Korea’s Entire Internet ![An American white hat hacker managed to disrupt the internet connection of North Korea — while wearing pajamas, eating chips, and watching "Alien."]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Couch Hacktato An American hacker managed to disrupt the internet connection of an entire country — while wearing pajamas, eating chips, and watching the movie "Alien," [*Wired* reports](). The hacker, who goes by the handle P4x, managed to able to bring North Korea's tightly walled-off internet to its knees over the last few weeks, making it nearly impossible to connect to the outside world. The hack is seemingly payback, since P4x told *Wired* he fell victim to the hacking of North Korean spies himself just over a year ago. But he says he never got any backup from the US government, even after reaching out to the FBI So he decided to take matters into his own hands. "It felt like the right thing to do here," he told *Wired*. "If they don’t see we have teeth, it’s just going to keep coming." ## Denying Service P4x exploited a number of vulnerabilities, bringing several of the country's central servers and routers to a crawl through "denial-of-service" attacks. Much of the software used by the North Korean government is extremely out of date, making it an easy target, according to the hacker. "It's pretty interesting how easy it was to actually have some effect in there," he told the magazine. The hacker's efforts brought down most of the country's internet-based services — but it's still unclear what kind of consequences that would have, since most North Koreans don't even have access to the internet to begin with. Besides, most of the networks operating in the country are just being used for spreading propaganda anyways. "I would say, if he's going after those people, he's probably directing his attentions to the wrong place," Martyn Williams, a researcher for the Stimson Center think tank, told *Wired*. "But if he just wants to annoy North Korea, then he is probably being annoying." P4x's actions could be in violation of several US laws, but given the "insane human rights abuses and complete control over their population," his "conscience is clear." **READ MORE:** [North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet]() \[*Wired*\] **More on hacking:** *[FBI Warned Jay-Z of ‘Imminent’ Email Hack]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()